The Transfer of the Precious Relics of Our Venerable Father Theodosius, Hegumen of the Monastery of the Caves at Kiev (1091); Fore-feast of the Holy Dormition of the Mother of God; Holy Prophet Micah (8th c. BC)
Hebrews 13:7-16; Matthew 11:27-29
Polyeleos Feast; Dormition Fast
Read Matthew 11:27-29
In our gospel lesson today, Christ uses the image of a yoke, a farming tool meant to harness oxen, to describe His rest. To the weary people who struggled under the yoke of oppression of so many world powers: Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Romans, He offers them what they might least expect, another yoke!
The fact of the matter remains that throughout our lives we are in the service of either the Lord, or the evil one though our sinfulness. As Bob Dylan famously sang: “You’re gonna have to serve somebody…it may be the devil or it may be the Lord but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” Today Lord offers us the dominion of our own self-seeking projects and “personal fulfillment,” or the yoke of His Kingdom, one which, although requiring tremendous work and effort, is a yoke worth taking up and which lead to true rest!
Epiphanius the Latin comments: “Therefore let everyone who wants life and desires to see good days put down the yoke of iniquity and malice. The prophet says, “Let us burst their bonds and thrust their yoke from us.” [Ps 2:3.] For unless one throws behind the yoke of iniquity, that is, the spark of all vices, one cannot take up the agreeable and light yoke of Christ. But if the yoke of Christ is so agreeable and light, how is it that divine religion seems so harsh and bitter to some people? It is bitter to some because the heart that has been tainted by earthly desires cannot love heavenly things. It has not yet come to Christ, so that it can take up his yoke and learn that he is gentle and humble of heart. Hence we observe, my dearest friends, from the teaching of our Lord, that unless a person is gentle and humble of heart, he or she cannot bear the yoke of Christ.” – Interpretation of the Gospels 26.